But grind they do, and the county’s monumental lack of rental housing is being addressed by projects planned and underway.

That at least is the assessment of a majority of Collier County commissioners who on Tuesday took up the discussion of a free market versus government mandates as they considered one apartment complex in the pipeline.

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In early 2017, the Urban Land Institute found that Collier County is fast approaching an affordable housing "crisis."
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At issue was a proposal to modify the development plans at Pine Ridge Commons on the northeast corner of Pine Ridge and Goodlette-Frank roads.

The owner of the property, Barron Collier Cos., wants to add 325 apartments, taking the place of commercial space that had been approved at the site in 1999.

The market has shifted since then, and there’s less demand for retail space and more demand for rental housing, the thinking goes.

The plan was approved 4-1, with Commissioner Penny Taylor dissenting, but not before a broader discussion of how the county will meet its need for more — and theoretically more affordable — rental housing for people in the workforce.

The arguments are made in other places, on other subjects, but they boil down to this: Should the government take control and dictate what businesses do? Should businesses be left on their own to assess and meet the needs of their customers? Should there be some sort of hybrid, with government offering incentives to get the results it prefers?

Taylor stood alone in one corner, asking for assurances that the people who occupy the new apartments, which will start at about $1,200 a month for a one-bedroom unit, will be the people the county has been trying to accommodate, such as teachers, first responders, nurses and other young professionals.

Those workers today tend to live in the eastern part of the county, or in Lee County, because of the lack of affordable housing close to the urban area.

“If you could guarantee me that the person living in the east is the same person that is going to be living in that (new apartment), I would agree with you. But we can’t control that; that is our challenge.”

Penny Taylor

“If you could guarantee me that the person living in the east is the same person that is going to be living in that (new apartment), I would agree with you,” she told Planning Director Mike Bosi. “But we can’t control that; that is our challenge.

"Let’s figure out how we can guarantee the folks who rent these places are actually the people that we need employed, like our essential services,” Taylor said.

Bosi said that under Tuesday’s proposal, no such guarantees could be made.

“But what we can say is we’re providing the opportunity,” he said. "There has to be a governmental response, but then there has to be a market response as well."

Government's role debated

Taylor also took the position that the government should take a greater role in planning where projects like Pine Ridge Commons should go.

“We’re due to look at Collier County to figure out what we want and where we want it to go. We’re doing it piecemeal," she said. "What I’m asking for, perhaps, is to look at the growth management plan and make these changes before people come in with their great ideas.”

Commission Chairman Andy Solis and Bosi quickly pointed out flaws in that thinking.

There is a plan in place allowing for low-intensity uses to the east and greater densities to the west, especially around major intersections, Bosi pointed out.

Locking in specific uses far in advance without the input of the property owners would be folly, Solis said.

The government lacks the expertise to say exactly what should be built where, Bosi added.

“They (the private sector) fill in the specificity of what that end user is," Bosi said. "From a governmental perspective, we don’t have that knowledge.”

“People have the right to adjust their zoning as they go on,” he said.

It has been more than a year since a team from the Urban Land Institute studied Collier County’s lack of housing affordable to people of low and moderate incomes.

One of the approaches the institute suggested was adding rental units. Yovanovich and Commissioner Donna Fiala both see signs that the market is heeding that call.

4,000 apartments in works

There are more than 4,000 apartment units under construction or in the planning phase in Collier County. Even after they’re all built, there will still be a need for nearly 2,000 more, according to projections. But the market is responding to a longstanding need.

“You’re seeing more and more apartment complexes coming through because that’s what the market is saying,” Yovanovich said. “You asked us to help solve your problem. You’ve got to let the market do it. It’s sheer supply and demand.”

“They’re building apartments now in quite a few places. This is a perfect example,” Fiala added.

Chimed in Solis, “I commend the owners for coming forward with this. This is starting us in the right direction.”

Neither apartment complexes nor any other form of affordable housing can spring up overnight. But with a little coaxing from policymakers, it will happen faster than it would under strict government control or no government action at all.